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Topic: Three swarms in a day, and confused! Help please? (Read 1220 times)

Sorry everyone, but the more I read in the archives, the more confused I am... I have had three swarms today, all from the same original source, which is a feral hive under a workshop. The first swarm was the largest, which I captured in a 10 deep. I immediately spotted the second swarm, and captured that swarm in the same box. I got home from work, and have a third swarm (quite small...about the size of 3-4 bananas in a bunch...) I saw a (fairly new) beek at a local market who has helped me in the past, and he said I never should have put the two swarms in the same box. I presently have a third swarm still hanging from the tree, and now am afraid to combine them. Again, they all came from the same original source. I saw the swarm occur this morning... So did I mess up? Do I just let the 3rd very small swarm go? What to do, and what did I do right/wrong? Help please. Thanks to all in advance!!

I would combine them, but try to find and pinch the queen in the small swarm before combining.

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"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

If it’s a small swam and you live in Miami, Florida, as opposed to Ohio, then you could just hive that 3rd small swam in a nuc and have a spare queen in case you need one for your full sized hives before winter. Otherwise, do as iddee says.

Thanks for the replies, but honestly, I am a super NewBee!! Pinch a Queen?? What does that mean please? Identify the queen IN the swarm?? Or examine the two swarms IN the box? How do I know which Queen to pinch, or even if there are really two? (does this mean kill?) I thought I read that the first swarm would have a mated Queen, and the smaller swarms to follow would have virgin queens? If so, I would imagine the mated Queen would take care of (eliminate) the virgins? I am so confused. I can't WAIT for the day that I 'think' I know something about bees!!!! I apologize for my ignorance. The third swarm of today is still in the tree...the others seem content in the new hive. So....what to do? Thanks for any and all input! I am learning fast, but WOW, do I have a lot to learn!!! :shock: Thanks again...this forum has been a true God send!

Hey Bees I'm fairly new myself, but I'll take a crack at answering your questions since in the 3 yrs ive been beekeeping I've had just about every hive I've ever had swarm so I'm unfortunately a bit of an expert on the subject. And others can correct me if I'm wrong. First, like you indicated, the first swarm out the door has the original mated queen with it. Therefore, all subsequent after swarms have unmated virgin queens that have just hatched from swarm cells. So by combining them like you did, you threw two queens together in one hive. What iddee is suggesting by telling you to "pinch the queen" is to kill that queen (the one you dont want) before you combine the swarm with the other hive. The one you kill is your call, but iddee is suggesting you keep the original I'm assuming here because she is already mated and accepted. The other queen is unmated, and while i dont know the drone situation in Miami, i know that where im at there are no Drones left to get an unmated queen bred before Winter here. The potential problem with putting two queens together is that eventually there has to be only one queen per hive. Therefore, the bees sort it out by the two queens fighting to the death. And in doing so you run the risk of having the remaining queen get injured in the process, which for obvious reasons is undesirable. And as is already suggested, another problem is that you may be left with the virgin queen in the end. Ill add here that you are probably ok with your original combine (although I personally wouldn't do that again) since I actually did the same thing when my very first hive swarmed and it worked out for me! Do you have other equipment that you could hive that third swarm in? That would make it easier to find that queen to pinch her if you do decide to combine. Or like Bluebee suggests, you could then hive them separately and have yourself another hive. But that too has its own problem since winter is approaching (although in Miami I'm not sure how much of a winter you have) and they need to have built up and have sufficient stores, etc... to survive. Anyway, hope this helps and good luck. You'll get there, just look at everything you do as a "learning experience" and of course that includes those things you do that don't work out so good...it's all a process!

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

If you have the equipment, keep the small swarm separate. That way if somthing goes wrong with the 2 you combined and they end up queenless you could do a newspaper combine with the third.Good luck.Paul.